An original idea? That can’t be too hard. The library must be full of them.
— Stephen Fry
The following is a suggested introductory reading list, presented in approximate reading order. I have omitted many books which, though interesting and important, are too much like hard work to recommend. Many of the older works are available free online — please Google for them. You can also read my book reviews.
Introductory books
- Tansey, Politics — the basics: a slim introduction to the key topics.
- Paxman, The Political Animal: a polemic against politicians as a class.
- O’Hara, After Blair: an analysis of the Cameroons.
- Hayek, The Road to Serfdom
- Boaz, The Libertarian Reader.
- Redwood, I want to make a difference, but I don’t like politics.
Politics
- de Tocqueville, Democracy in America: the chapter “What sort of despotism democratic nations have to fear?” is essential reading, available here.
- Mises, Liberalism — The Classical Tradition.
- Paul, The Revolution — A Manifesto: 2008 republican presidential candidate Ron Paul lays out his proposal for a return to strict constitutionalism in the USA.
- Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto.
- Engels, The Principles of Communism.
- Duncan and Hobson, Saturn’s Children: Conservative Shadow Cabinet member Alan Duncan’s early description of “how the state devours liberty, prosperity and virtue”.
- Wilson, The New Freedom — A Call For The Emancipation of the Generous Energies of a People: a President of the United States rails against corporate capitalism.
- The Conservative Party, Built to Last.
- Ancram, Still a Conservative
- Jill Kirby, Who do they think we are? — Government’s hidden agenda to control our lives. (CPS – here)
Philosophy
- Plato, The Republic: discussions on the nature of justice, knowledge, morality and political authority. A foundation of western philosophy, viciously critiqued by Popper.
- Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future. Hard going, but illuminating.
- Hayek, the Constitution of Liberty: an interpretation of civilization as being made possible by the fundamental principles of liberty.
- Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies, Volumes 1 and 2.
- Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom: an essential alternative perspective on liberty.
- Mill, On Liberty.
Economics
See this longer economics reading list.
History
- King, The British Constitution.
- Marr, A History of Modern Britain.
- Bingham, This Little Britain: how one small country built the modern world.
- The Bible, 1 Samuel 8: God’s warning regarding kings.
- Courtois et al, The Black Book of Communism.
Issues
- Meadows et al, The Limits to Growth.
- Bartholomew, “The Welfare State We’re in”
- Booker and North, The Great Deception — Can the European Union survive?
- Philip Vander Elst, The Principles of British Foreign Policy (Bruges Group)
- Martin Howe QC, A Constitution for Europe — A Legal Assessment of the Draft Treaty (Congress for Democracy)
- David Heathcoat-Amory MP, The European Constitution — And What it Means for Britain (CPS)
- Lindsay Jenkins, Altiero Spinelli — Godfather of the European Union (Bruges Group)
I also recommend a smattering of mathematics and physics — particularly the arithmetic of growth, entropy and chaos theory — and anything by the Centre for Policy Studies.
And remember:
One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.
— Milton Friedman